The tradition of placing American flags at veterans’ graves on Veteran’s Day weekend continued this year on Orcas Island. Well, twice some vandals went to the graves, burned the American flags, and put up some home-made swastika flags.
I really can’t think of much more to say about it than what I said in the title.
It’s like Fred Phelps without balls.
Fucking useless people.
That’s pathetic. If the point is to protest the war it’s off target. A lot of those guys died so that we wouldn’t be flying swastikas on our public buildings.
Scumbaggery runs loose here in Massachusetts, too. Last week, a few days before Memorial Day, some anonymous slime mold took the foot-high flags that had been placed at the Natick war memorial by the veterans who lovingly maintain the memorial, shoved them in a nearby trash receptacle, and set them on fire.
Despicable.
When I first heard about this, I thought:
Defacing veterans graves on any other day is mean and disrespectful.
Doing it on Memorial Day is evil.
What **BobLibDem ** said summed it up. Ungrateful fucks.
Well, they made the news, didn’t they? That’s got to be pretty exciting for them. And now, the SDMB. Funny how much attention a few hand-drawn swastikas and a Zippo can garner. I can just imagine them putting those little Nazi flags together with markers and paste, like some demented Cub Scout project, all of them giggling like little schoolgirls. (How did authorities know there was more than one vandal, I wonder? The damage, as described, does not seem like it would be too much work for a single determined punk.)
These poor guys have probably been smashing tombstones on their summer vacation for years now, and nobody even cared. But now they’ve figured out a hook! They’ve finally made the big time. Congrats, guys! Don’t let it go to your heads, though. Always remember, if it weren’t for America’s knee-jerk flag worship, not to mention the history of the Nazi swastika, you would still be laboring in obscurity. You’re standing on the shoulders of giants.
Orcas Island is a great place for a graveyard, by the way. “Woodlawn Cemetery” is a pretty uninspired name, but the name of the island totally makes up for it. Please, let me be buried on… Orcas Island! All praise to Orcas, god of Death!
Hopefully, one of these punks will get drunk, start bragging about it in a bar, a Vet will overhear & the fun begins!
Actually, it’s named neither for Orcas (what system is he a deity in, BTW?) nor for killer whales, but for some Spanish explorer with a name something like Don Juan Carlos de Cristo Hidalgo de Nombre Sesquipedalico y Orcasionadero [obviously not the real name, but it gives you the idea! :D]
[QUOTE=BobLibDem]
If the point is to protest the war it’s off target.
[/QUOTE]
I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion. I think the point was “Hey, look at me, I’m an asshole!” A point well made.
Polycarp: Orcus was the Roman god of the Underworld, from whom the Latin name “Orca” is supposedly derived. Evidently the Romans were fairly intimidated by the critters, although I guess the name “killer whale” isn’t all sunshine and roses either. Orcus is also a demon prince in the Dungeons and Dragons RPG. This probably refers back to Roman mythology, rather than to whales or Spanish people. The name just struck me as amusing. Orcas Island! The legendary Isle of Graves; gateway to the Netherworld! Hail Orcas, He Who Wanders Among Tombs!
I imagine the Spanish guy Orcas probably took a lot of ribbing from his fellow explorers, although based on their overall track record I wouldn’t bet against his having actually played the god of Death to some group of people or other. So maybe it’s just as well.
[QUOTE=FriarTed]
Hopefully, one of these punks will get drunk, start bragging about it in a bar, a Vet will overhear & the fun begins!
[/QUOTE]
I highly doubt they are old enough to be in a bar.
[QUOTE=NurseCarmen]
I highly doubt they are old enough to be in a bar.
[/QUOTE]
And if they are, they most likely won’t go to one. Instead they’ll go back to their IWW tea house and brag about how they stuck it to ‘the man’. And their fellow wobblies will nod their heads in agreement.
[QUOTE=BobLibDem]
That’s pathetic. If the point is to protest the war it’s off target. A lot of those guys died so that we wouldn’t be flying swastikas on our public buildings.
[/QUOTE]
Hmm. Funny you say that now. When we were discussing in this thread teaching your kids to be patriotic (and by patriotic, one means doing things like decorating veterans’ graves with flags, or at least respecting the flags that are there), you replied with this:
[QUOTE=BobLibDem]
I don’t understand what the supposed good of patriotism is, it makes public support for military actions that aren’t always justified. You won’t find a more patriotic nation than Nazi Germany, is it that kind of national frenzy what some want to replicate?
[/QUOTE]
So if the flags and swastikas are seen as interchangeable in the minds of some of our impressionable youth, maybe it is because they are getting some mixed messages.
I stand by what I said in that same thread, concerning this same incident:
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto]
I notice in the news today that some people have also confused patriotism with Nazism - they burned a bunch of American flags decorating veterans’ graves in Washington and replaced some with sheets of paper depicting a swastika.
Now, I wouldn’t dream that anyone on these boards would do anything so stupid. I will say, though, that if you don’t teach your kids an appropriate American expression of patriotism, they might confuse it with other, less innocent kinds, and pull boneheaded stunts like this.
I don’t want to make more of the incident than what it was - probably a bunch of kids doing something stupid. I do hope, though, that my kids, when they reach that age, will know why that kind of behavior is wrong, and choose not to do it.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto]
Hmm. Funny you say that now. When we were discussing in this thread teaching your kids to be patriotic (and by patriotic, one means doing things like decorating veterans’ graves with flags, or at least respecting the flags that are there), you replied with this:
[/QUOTE]
Your logic doesn’t follow. Idiotic vandalsism is not the polar opposite of blind jingoism. Honestly, one would think you were smart enough to figure that out.
Man, where’s a zombie-causing virus (or voodoo priest) when you need one? Imagine some young punk starting to spray-paint a tombstone when suddenly a hand bursts up from the ground …
[QUOTE=Mr. Moto]
Hmm. Funny you say that now. When we were discussing in this thread teaching your kids to be patriotic (and by patriotic, one means doing things like decorating veterans’ graves with flags, or at least respecting the flags that are there), you replied with this:
[/QUOTE]
That’s completely ridiculous. I don’t always agree with you, but i never thought you were stupid, and the comparison you’re making here is really stupid.
[QUOTE=tdn]
Honestly, one would think you were smart enough to figure that out.
[/QUOTE]
And now you know.
[QUOTE=Ponder Stibbons]
Man, where’s a zombie-causing virus (or voodoo priest) when you need one? Imagine some young punk starting to spray-paint a tombstone when suddenly a hand bursts up from the ground …
[/QUOTE]
Exactly what I was thinking. If cowards can attack the dead, turnabout is fair play.
[QUOTE=Terrifel]
Well, they made the news, didn’t they? That’s got to be pretty exciting for them. And now, the SDMB. Funny how much attention a few hand-drawn swastikas and a Zippo can garner.
[/QUOTE]
This is the worst part of the whole thing – by splashing this all over the news, we’re giving these idiots the attention they were looking for. DNFTT, media.